Opening
In the chaotic aftermath of a bombing raid, Michael O'Shaunessey drowns in guilt over missing his rendezvous with Lieutenant Simon Cohen even as his parents, Megan O'Shaunessey (Ma) and Davin O'Shaunessey (Da), scramble to make sense of a new threat. The discovery of an assassination plot against physicist Hendrik Goldsmit explodes the story’s stakes—and thrusts Michael into a desperate bid to prove himself amid layers of Deception and Espionage.
What Happens
Chapter 66: The Science Conference
Morning breaks over Berlin with sirens still echoing when Michael sits in his father’s embassy office, certain he’s doomed Simon to capture. Ma redirects his spiraling guilt toward a single clue: the name Hendrik Goldsmit, which she identifies as a Dutch physicist working on America’s rumored “superbomb.” Da digs up a newspaper notice—Goldsmit is scheduled to attend a science conference in neutral Switzerland in two days.
The pieces snap into place. The “science team” that Fritz Brendler boasts about is no honor squad; it’s a Hitler Youth assassination unit meant to slip past Swiss neutrality. The family can’t warn the Allies: phone lines are tapped, diplomatic pouches too slow. A coded call confirms Simon missed his extraction, twisting the knife. When fresh air-raid sirens wail, Michael refuses to hide. He bolts for his anti-aircraft post, determined to do his duty and claw back a chance to make things right.
Chapter 67: The Wine Delivery
In the alley behind the embassy, a hand yanks Michael into the shadows—it’s Simon, alive, ghost-pale, and bleeding. Michael hustles him through the building to the hidden closet in Da’s office as the staff evacuates, then races back to “fetch” his parents, slipping Da a message in their code about a “wine delivery” to avoid alarming the housekeeper. Da sends the staff to the public bunker and returns with Michael to the secret room.
Simon describes a Berlin that turns every mistake lethal. He misread Einbahnstrasse (one-way street) as a street name and got lost. A Hitler Youth patrol flushed him into an alley. Faced with a boy of about ten, he couldn’t pull the trigger. The child didn’t hesitate—he stabbed Simon with a dagger. Simon clutches the bloodstained Projekt 1065 blueprints: damaged, but intact. Relief floods Michael—Simon survived, and the plans did, too.
Chapter 68: A New Mission
With bombs falling, Da cleans and binds Simon’s wound, the horror of a child soldier’s knife making the room feel colder. To maintain appearances, Da heads to the public bunker with the staff, leaving Michael to finish bandaging. Michael apologizes in a rush for missing the rendezvous; Simon stops him. Nothing in covert work ever goes to plan, he says, and he trusts Michael had a reason.
To distract him from the pain, Michael explains the Goldsmit plot. Simon immediately sees the tactical opening: with Max dead, there’s a slot on the “science team.” He fixes on Michael. “You’ve got to get on that science team... You have to go to Switzerland and stop it yourself.” The command scorches away Michael’s self-loathing and ignites purpose. If replacements are chosen off their performance during raids, he needs to be seen—now.
Chapter 69: An English Performance
During the next American air raid, Michael stages a one-man show for SS-Obersturmführer Trumbauer. Because Max’s English helped earn him a slot, Michael spends the raid hauling ammunition while speaking and singing only in English: limericks, jokes, a loud “There once was a man from Nantucket.” The other boys stare; Fritz corners him, demanding an explanation. Michael keeps up the act.
When the all-clear sounds, Trumbauer forms the line. Michael salutes hard and answers crisply, “Sir, yes, sir!”—still in English. Every move pushes one message: he’s the obvious replacement.
Chapter 70: The Führer’s Invitation
The moment arrives. Trumbauer strides past Michael and selects Horst Fortner—zealous, monolingual, and fanatically loyal. Michael reels. He blurts out a plea to be chosen instead; Trumbauer’s dismissal is icy and final.
As the boys prepare to disperse, Trumbauer announces a “great and glorious honor”: that afternoon, Adolf Hitler will address them in person. Michael stands in the wreckage of his plan, the stakes rocketing even higher.
Character Development
Michael’s confidence surges and collapses in rapid succession, but the collapse clarifies his mission: stop the assassination by any means he can, even without official sanction.
- Michael O'Shaunessey: Driven by guilt and a need to prove himself, he pivots from self-reproach to action, embracing risk to offset failure. His campaign to showcase English fluency is audacious, if naive, underscoring the pull of Courage, Fear, and Confronting Weakness.
- Lieutenant Simon Cohen: Competent and compassionate, he refuses to shoot a child, paying for that choice in blood. He shifts into mentor mode, channeling Michael’s guilt into a clear objective and trusting the boy’s instincts.
- Megan and Davin O’Shaunessey: Calm under pressure, they triage intelligence, leverage codes, and maintain cover with the staff—models of disciplined espionage under fire.
- Fritz Brendler: A mirror for Michael’s performance, he fails to grasp the subterfuge, highlighting Michael’s isolation within the Hitler Youth.
- SS-Obersturmführer Trumbauer: His selection of Horst over Michael spotlights the regime’s preference for zeal over utility, a pattern of judgment shaped by The Corrupting Influence of Ideology.
Themes & Symbols
War’s moral costs surface brutally when Simon spares a child and gets stabbed for it. That wound stands as both a physical consequence and an ethical line: the refusal to become what the enemy demands. Michael’s rush to adulthood—trying to be noticed, taking on a mission beyond his years—collides with the image of a ten-year-old as an instrument of violence, a stark emblem of childhood destroyed.
Espionage turns everyday life into camouflage. The “science team” is a euphemism for an assassination squad; “wine delivery” becomes a lifeline; a one-way sign nearly becomes a death sentence. The Nazis’ plan to exploit Swiss neutrality by deploying boys weaponizes innocence itself, demonstrating how deception metastasizes within authoritarian systems.
Key Quotes
“You’ve got to get on that science team... You have to go to Switzerland and stop it yourself.”
Simon reframes Michael’s guilt as a mission, granting him agency and urgency. The imperative tone marks a turning point: Michael’s path shifts from passive remorse to active intervention.
“Sir, yes, sir!”
Michael’s English salute functions as both bravado and code, a public audition for a covert role. The line underscores his willingness to risk ridicule and suspicion to force Trumbauer’s hand.
“There once was a man from Nantucket...”
The absurdity of a limerick shouted during a bombing raid highlights Michael’s calculated spectacle. Humor becomes a tactical tool—conspicuous, memorable, and perfectly tuned to the selection criterion he believes matters.
“A great and glorious honor.”
Trumbauer’s phrase recasts propaganda as privilege, revealing the regime’s power to mask danger as blessing. The announcement yokes personal crisis to historical theater, escalating pressure on Michael.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
This sequence closes one mission—the Projekt 1065 plans survive—only to open a more volatile one: stopping the assassination of Hendrik Goldsmit. Michael’s failed bid to join the “science team” forces him beyond straightforward strategies, pushing him toward riskier, more inventive forms of resistance.
Trumbauer’s choice of zeal over competence exposes a structural flaw in the Nazi apparatus that Michael can exploit. The imminent audience with Hitler vaults the narrative into the regime’s inner spectacle, placing Michael’s private resolve in direct tension with the public machinery of fanaticism and setting the stage for decisive action.